Death of the Shadows
by twistedfigure
Summary: Sa'ak was a nomad, but his life changed drastically(Takes place after Inheritance, Bad description but good story I promise) (I dont own the cover art, Cred to the artist who did, Ya Done good kid, Ya done good)
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One- Black Rocks

Sa'ak looked over the Coast of Alagaesia, admiring the waves on their endless journey toward the land, crashing tiredly on the shore before being sucked back in, for the cycle to begin again. He wondered, like he had many times, about the land beyond his continent, where Eragon had gone to rebuild the riders so long ago. He looked down at the many scars on the dark brown skin of his hands, and marveled at how his life had changed. He had once been a simple nomad boy, trying to prove his worthiness so as to join his comrades and kinsmen on their hunts, when his entire perception of the world changed drastically. One day, Eragon and his dragon, Saphira, Had flown over his tribe. He realized then that the world was a much bigger place then he had once thought. His lust for adventure soon took over, and he soon left the grasslands that were his home, in search of more exciting adventures.

He was brought back to the present when the ocean breeze and salty smell that came with it hit his face. He did not know, but he looked for all the world like a black rock, being concealed as he was by his cloak, with its cool fabric, and the shiny raven feathers attached to the cowl by the hood, which was pulled up, concealing his face. The only thing breaking the illusion was the glint of light being reflected off of the massive greatsword fastened to his back. The sword looked to be unusable due to its size, considering it was nearly as tall as he was, and he was not a short man. In fact, while the blade was no wider than that of a normal sword, it was still so long that the overall weight of the blade would make it impossible for a normal man to wield the blade efficiently, if he could swing it at all. Still, Sa'ak was no normal man; he possessed a natural strength that eluded most men, even though his body was not overly thick.

He stood from his crouched position and, shielding his eyes from the sun, turned back and started toward the city of Terim. He knew what awaited him in the city, questioning guards and the jostling of the crowds, but he just sighed and thought ' _I had better just get used to it'._ He had never liked crowds, and he had his reasons for disliking being touched. He looked down at the tips of his black leather boots, which were shining under the light of the oppressive sun, and he knew not that in the days to come, he would not only have his thirst for adventure sated, but he would become one of the strongest warriors to walk the land, meet queen Nasuada, meet Arya, queen of the elves, meet Eragon and Saphira, his Idols, and have the fate of an entire world resting in his scarred palm. He had been through a lot, but none of it would compare to what lay in the near future for him.

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 **AN: Hey, this is my first ever fanfic, an I wasn't sure if I should write one. Sorry if it is not that good, Please review so I know what I am working with. Need reviews for the next chapter. I DO NOT OWN THE INHERITANCE CYCLE**


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Okay, The reason the first chapter was so short is because it was more of an experiment, however, I wasn't just gonna leave it at that. I was actually planning on posting this along with the first chapter, but I had to leave, because I am a sophomore at high school and I didn't wanna miss the bus. Two chapters in one day, sounds crazy right? Well... I am crazy, something wrong with that? Huh? HUH? YOU WANNA FIGHT? Oops... got carried away again. Well... Enjoy.**

 **I DO NOT OWN THE INHERITANCE CYCLE**

Chapter Two- The Fruit Stand

Sa'ak was walking back towards Terim, when he tripped over something. Had he been looking where he was going, he would have noticed the woman lying there, but he had been too deep in thought. He shrugged it off, getting back to his thoughts, when something occurred to him. 'What the heck is a woman doing out here?' he asked himself. "Hello?" he called. No answer. He looked at the woman lying face down, and wondered if she was sleeping. He prodded her with the tip of his boot, she did not respond. He then decided to flip her over, and was aghast at what he saw. She was one of the most attractive people he had ever seen, her raven black hair shone in the sun, and it was as soft as down. Her slanted eyes, thin lips and angled features gave her an almost feline appearance. Sa'ak noticed none of this, due to the fact that, all over her body, were signs of fresh combat, and possibly even torture. He could see the rips in her clothing were not caused by travel, but by a blade. Sa'ak found a deep anger within himself; he had a profound hatred of anyone that would torture another living being, much less a fragile female. He picked up the limp body, which still held on, just barely, to life. He decided to work on his explanation for when she woke up, for he had no desire to be punched, kicked, or slapped by this woman in any way. He sighed, figuring that with his luck it would happen anyways. He carried the unfortunate woman through the streets of Terim, deciding it would be best if he carried her bridal style, as it was the least offensive way to maneuver her. He was not heading to a healer, however. He carried her straight back to his room at the Rusty Nail, a tavern. He had not taken her to a healer because he had experience with this type of situation, and because healers asked too many questions.

All this Sa'ak was trying to explain to the woman, whose name was Astrid, as she was sitting on his bed, dazed and confused. Sa'ak found himself in a difficult situation, as he never had been good at explaining things in a way others could understand, for his mind was organized in a strange way. It did not help that Astrid showed no signs of emotion toward what he told her, she simply sat there, staring at Sa'ak. He couldn't hold her piercing emerald gaze, for he felt that she was staring into his soul, looking at all of the emotions he kept locked away so carefully. He looked around the room, from Astrid, sitting on the bed, which was positioned in the corner, to the tidy desk on the other side of the room, covered in parchment from his studies. From there his eyes wandered to his pack, which contained all the necessities of travel. He could not bear the discomfort of Astrid's emerald eyes any longer, so he walked to the window and gazed upon the crowded, busy streets of Terim. Suddenly, Astrid mumbled "Thanks" and left. He shrugged, knowing that he could not force her to let him heal her. He looked out of the window a while longer, before deciding that it was getting late. He was in the process of changing for bed, when a man, with slanted features similar to Astrid's, barged into his room. Sa'ak panicked, touched his face, and sighed with relief as he felt the linen strips he always wore around his mouth and nose, keeping his face hidden. Then he remembered something, panicked again, and looked down, sighing yet again with relief as he realized he was still wearing his cloth undershorts. The man looked at Sa'ak, then screamed "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO LYSTRA". Sa'ak only had time to say "Eh?" before the man hit him square in his bare chest with more force than was humanly possible, sending Sa'ak out of the window and onto a fruit stand in the middle of a busy street. Sa'ak was not embarrassed to be wearing nothing but his undershorts in the middle of a crowd, but he was enraged to have been struck for no reason, not to mention he was now covered in fruit juice.

 **AN: Thanks for reading, Reviews are appreciated, Sorry if there wasn't enough dialogue or something like that.**


	3. Chapter 3

**I DONT OWN THE INHERITANCE CYCLE**

Chapter Three- What Doesn't Kill me Hurts… A Lot

"What is your problem?" Sa'ak asked the man, who had jumped from the window to land in front of him. "You… YOU HURT HER" the unknown person screamed. "Who exactly did I hurt?" Sa'ak questioned. "LYSTRA" he screamed, and instead of letting Sa'ak get another word in, he struck Sa'ak in the chest, closing the distance between them faster than Sa'ak could see. Sa'ak went flying into the same fruit stand, once again getting sprayed with juice from the fruits he crashed into. Neither Sa'ak nor the impossibly strong man realized how much attention they were drawing to themselves. An ebony skinned man, which was rare, was being repeatedly hit into the same fruit stand, causing him to be very sticky. Not only that, but he was covered in pulp and was not wearing anything besides the cloth shorts that he wore under his clothes. The man, who was rather handsome, was hitting him so hard that he sent the ebony skinned flying at least eight feet. Sa'ak was not thinking about any of this as he got up from the fruit stand, his body was dripping juice, and he was bleeding from his mouth, a sign of the internal bleeding caused when some of his newly broken ribs pierced various parts of his body. Sa'ak rubbed the fist shaped imprint on his chest, wondering how he could defeat a warrior like this man. All of a sudden, Astrid ran out of the crowd, and she put her hand on the unidentified man's shoulder, saying, "Laufin, you must stop this madness." Sa'ak groaned as he fell to the ground, unable to stand after his injuries. Laufin turned to her and expressed his concern "Lystra, I do not understand, is he not the one who did this to you?"

"No Laufin" She replied "He did not do this to me, just think, how could a human best me in battle?"

A very confused Sa'ak tried to speak, but it hurt too much due to the rib that was piercing his lung. Hearing his pain, Lystra, who was actually not Astrid, lifted him off the ground and carried him bridal style to their room at the Golden Apple. Lystra then began to sing in a strange language. Sa'ak, now having absolutely no idea whatsoever what was happening, felt his wounds begin to heal. Sa'ak was very confused and upset at everything said and done, and he simply didn't understand how he had been healed. Lystra explained to him that she and Laufin were elves, and they covered Sa'ak's mouth so he could not scream. To their surprise, Sa'ak was not resisting, and he was not trying to scream. Sa'ak was very level headed, and he was able to take this knowledge in without concern. When they removed their hands from the rough linen covering his mouth, they sighed with relief when he said nothing. The silence went on as Sa'ak formulated his thoughts, absentmindedly looking around the room, which looked remarkably like his own. He took a breath so as to speak, and both elves looked at him expectantly. To the surprise of the elves, Sa'ak did not ask them about their round ears or human looking faces, instead he inquired "Can you take me back to my room, this fruit juice is sticky, and I would prefer not to be in my undershorts any longer."

Lystra blushed as she realized that what she mistook for an ebony shirt was actually his bare chest, and the lines she had thought were wrinkles in the fabric were actually long, ragged scars. "Sure" Replied Laufin. Back at his room in the Rusty Nail, in the light of the setting sun, Sa'ak's fate changed once more.


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: Here it is folks, a one thousand word chapter, containing quite a bit of character development on the mysterious Sa'ak. You may be surprised at this content, I hope it isn't too mainstream. A huge thank you to those who reviewed, and to those who haven't, It isn't too late. All advise, constructive criticism, comments, and ideas are welcome.**

 **I DO NOT OWN THE INHERITANCE CYCLE!**

Chapter Four- A Broken Man

Sa'ak's mind was in a flurry, he tried to think of the right questions to ask. After dealing with the owner of the tavern about the broken window, which he had to pay for in full, he had gone to a new room that had been assigned to him, bathed out back with a bucket of water, and put on some brown leather breeches, a white cloth shirt that was covered by a brown leather vest. However, the most notable thing was how none of the clothes were quite big enough for him. The clothes were wide enough to accommodate his bulk; which was larger than most men but smaller than the particularly muscular ones, the main problem was his height. He stood a head taller than most fully grown men, though he was not one himself. When standing straight, he was six feet seven inches tall, or a little over two meters. This caused all of his clothes to come up short, and he would have felt ridiculous, if he had not gone through his recent experiences.

Lystra POV:

Lystra knew right off that Sa'ak was not normal; she had felt this primordial emotion about him that was so strong it was almost tangible. In fact, it was so strange that she could not identify what it was. She could however, tell that it was negative, and Sa'ak was what she believed to be 'a broken man'. It disturbed her that anyone could feel that much negative emotion. But, even if she had not felt the strength of his emotion, she would have known something was off about him due to the large and extensive scars covering his body, and the fact that he wore linen strips across his mouth and nose, hiding the lower part of his face. Her gaze wandered around the room until it settled upon Sa'ak's face, or rather, the visible part of it. His most outstanding feature was a scar that ran vertically across his left eyebrow and down until it disappeared beneath the folds of the linen strips around his mouth and nose. It looked almost as if someone had tried to cut his eye, but had not dug their blade deep enough to actually reach it. She figured that Sa'ak had seen battle before, judging from the sheer number of scars marring his ebony skin. She looked over at the ridiculously and incredibly large greatsword in the corner of the room, wondering how a human could hope to wield such a blade in battle. She figured that she should be the one to ask the first question, because Laufin had left and Sa'ak showed no sign of speaking any time soon.

"How did one so young as you manage to come across so many scars?" She inquired. Sa'ak's face darkened, and she knew she had stumbled on a sensitive area. "You can trust me" She said in the ancient language.

Much to Lystra's surprise, Sa'ak replied in the ancient language, saying "Glad to hear it, I was hesitant to tell you lest you be a spy sent by Jarek or the Uprising" Even more surprising was that Sa'ak knew of Jarek, who was a Shade, and also knew of the Uprising, a rebellious group looking to overthrow queen Nasuada. She said nothing of it though, figuring he would explain himself.

"I don't think I will be able to say it though, or I will probably tear the whole building down." Lystra was surprised, simply because Sa'ak was, as far as she could tell, level headed.

"If you do not explain yourself, I will have to reach into your mind, this information was crucial" She explained.

Sa'ak scowled, but he complied. Without further ado, she reached into his mind, only to be shocked by what she saw there.

' _It was dark, a lantern the only illumination in the cold, damp room. He was chained to a block of stone, spread eagled, wearing nothing but tattered undershorts. He was facing the ceiling, the stone being in the center of the otherwise bare room. Jarek walked in, his blood red hair and eyes frightening Sa'ak." Are you ready, dearest Sa'ak?" The Shade inquired._

 _Sa'ak spat at the shade, not saying anything. The Shade smiled and grabbed a curved skinning knife from a tray that was hidden from view. "You only have to say where she is hidden, dearest Sa'ak" The shade said. Silence. The shade scowled "Fine, we will proceed as usual." And with that, the shade inserted the knife into the corner of Sa'ak's mouth, and cut up to his earlobe. Although experiencing unbearable pain, Sa'ak did not scream, whimper or even flinch. The shade repeated the process on the other side of his face. All he felt right then was the determination not to give away her location, not even to think her name. The Shade busied himself making incisions from the corners of Sa'ak's mouth to various parts of his face, not straying higher than his nose however. Sa'ak had been given a drug that heightens pain, but he bore through it, determined not to be broken. The Shade was now making incisions on his chest, all of which Sa'ak felt, and all of which caused him pain to an extreme degree._

 _The Shade scowled even deeper and said "Because it is your love that is holding you back, and because you clearly will not be broken, I am going to cut out your heart, DIE FILTHY HUMAN" Sa'ak now felt fear as the Shade dug his blade into the muscle over Sa'ak's chest, slowly making a deep cut, and causing Sa'ak extreme pain. Suddenly, the Shade stopped, seemingly having a mental conversation with someone. What Jarek did next chilled Sa'ak to the bone; the Shade smiled. "It seems you have been saved, our target has been exterminated" At that, Sa'ak felt a part of himself break, part of his mind broke, and he lost control of himself._

" _LEIANA" He screamed. His hatred was so overwhelming, he started pulling on the chains, determined to strangle the Shade with his bare hands, but Jarek had already left the room. As he thought about his life without Leiana, Sa'ak snapped. He broke free of the stone, pulling so hard that he ripped chunks off of the rock, and he kicked over the solid iron door without effort. His anger was so strong that he could not remember the next bit; his last impression was emerging into a forest, almost nude, with fresh wounds and blood covering every part of his body, especially his hands. He remembered making his silent vow to keep his inner strength hidden, and to avenge Leiana.'_

Lystra gasped, at a complete loss for words. She had known that Sa'ak was broken inside, but not to this degree. And she realized the emotion emanating off him was hatred, but a hatred so strong it had evolved into a new emotion, one there was no word for.


End file.
